The Labour MP who inflicted a shock defeat on Liz Truss at the general election has revealed more details of the former prime minister’s late arrival at her electoral count and the slow-clapping that followed.
Terry Jermy, newly minted Labour MP for South West Norfolk, has challenged Truss’s explanation that she was in a branch of McDonald’s moments away from the count but was delayed by a railway crossing.
“What most people don’t realise is that they actually finished counting at about 5am and they were sort of shuffling around with tables and papers whilst we were waiting for Liz Truss to make her way to the count,” Jermy told Labour List.
“It was only about 6.30am that she arrived anywhere near and so we were all sort of waiting around doing nothing and all the counting had finished for quite a long while,” he said, “When she got to the building, we were all given a sign as candidates to go on stage with the High Sheriff, but even then we were on stage for what felt like an eternity and she was still not appearing on the stage.”
“That’s when people started slow hand clapping and started to get a bit restless – not Labour Party people I hasten to add.”
A bizarre evening where at one point a slow clap broke out when waiting for Liz Truss to appear pic.twitter.com/pwtMtFTkse
— Graham Stothard 🎥 (@StothardTV) July 5, 2024
Truss told the Telegraph that she had avoided attending the count for an extended period of time on election night because “there were various dubious journalists from the BBC there.”
While Jermy describes himself as an “accidental politician”, he overturned Truss’s 26,000 majority last month and secured the second largest swing of the election (after Nigel Farage’s win in Clacton).
“I was coming across people who were lifelong Conservatives time and time again telling me they would not vote for Truss,” Jermy told Labour List, “I think I went for the entirety of the election campaign where I did not find a single person that had something positive to say about her.”
Jermy credits his campaign slogan “It’s Terry or Truss” with helping him to secure his unexpected victory. Truss held one of the safest Conservative seats in the country. He said he stood partly because he “felt Truss took the area for granted”.
For much of the night, Jermy told Labour List, he thought Truss would be relegated to third place by Reform UK, which enjoyed a strong showing in the constituency. In the end, Truss came second to Jermy by a margin of 630 votes.
While Jermy received a congratulatory handshake from Truss on election night, he claims that he has not received the expected handover of constituency casework from her. “I’m quite disappointed in that really. We are all here to serve the residents and we don’t want to let them down in the transition,” he said.
A spokesperson for Liz Truss said: “Jermy has already let down constituents by failing to oppose Labour's potential cancellation of the new Queen Elizabeth Hospital and taking away pensioners' winter fuel payments. Liz is diligently completing outstanding case work. Of course, due to data protection laws she cannot simply hand over constituents’ confidential information."
